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Ants can be a major pest -- especially if they invade your kitchen. Your first instinct might be to kill the ants with something else in your kitchen -- a bag of cornmeal. You may have heard that cornmeal kills ants, but that isn't entirely true. Cornmeal can help you kill ants, but it won't directly harm them. Instead, it is best used as bait.

Cornmeal Alone

Many ants, including fire ants, are attracted to cornmeal, but it won't kill them. Instead, the ants just gather up the crumbs and happily march themselves back to their nest. Ants follow a scent trail, so spreading cornmeal on the ground will disrupt the scent and make it hard for other ants to find the trail, but this is a far cry from killing the ants.

Cornmeal Plus Poison

Cornmeal plus a little bit of ant poison is another story entirely. Mix cornmeal with a slow-acting liquid insecticide or boric acid to make a paste. Slow-acting insecticides are the most effective way of controlling ants, according to the Colorado State University Extension. Choose one made specifically for ants for best results, and add it a little at a time to the cornmeal until you have a thick paste.

Why It Works

Worker ants only feed on liquids. They take solid food back to the nests, where it is given to larvae. Then, the larvae convert it to liquid and feed it back to the worker ants. Straight boric acid or insecticide will kill ants, but the worker ants will eat it rather than taking it back to the nest because it is in liquid form. Making a paste ensures the poison will get to the nest. You may also lay a trail of straight cornmeal to lure the ants to the poison.

Method of Killing

Spread the love -- and the poison. Dab the paste where you have seen ants. Protect your hands with gloves and wash them when you are done. Make sure the paste is not accessible to children or pets. You may wish to enclose it in an ant trap just to make sure little hands or paws can't reach it. Also dab the paste around entrances to your home, windows or other cracks where you have seen ants. Be sure you clean up the poison once you notice that ants are no longer invading your home.